SOME months ago, when calling on a poor woman, a Christian, living in a rural district in Buckinghamshire, the precious promise contained in Isa. 55:1111So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11) was brought forcibly to my mind: “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
After the first few salutations, she said, “Oh! I must tell you my joy this week; it has so cheered me up. What good may not a little word do.”
I wondered what she could mean.
She went on to tell me about a ragged, shoeless man who, seven or eight years ago, had come to her house begging.
This brought from him a volley of abuse against Christians, or Methodists, as he styled them; and he added, “Ah! I see you are one of them.”
Her reply was, “Thank God! I am; and I hope, my friend, when you come again, God will have changed your wicked heart, for remember His word says, He that believeth... shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.’” (Mark 16:1616He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (Mark 16:16).)
This only made him more angry, and he went off uttering fresh oaths and imprecations against the person whom the Lord had chosen as one of His instruments of mercy in the salvation of his precious soul, although he knew it not.
Years passed on; the text on the wall, being soiled, had been removed, and the circumstance was well-nigh forgotten by the family, when, three days before my visit to her, a respectably dressed man appeared at her door.
He entered smiling, and saying, “Don’t you remember me, and my abusing you about the ‘Methodists’? But now, praise the Lord, He has used them in blessing to my soul! Where’s your text on the wall: ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord’? And don’t you remember that solemn passage you said to the in parting, ‘He that believeth... shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned’? Oh, how that word rang in my ears afterward!”
For some little time they sat weeping for joy, when he proceeded to tell her how the Lord had met with him. One Sunday afternoon, in some part of the country, he had been present at an open-air preaching which recalled to him more vividly than ever the words of the poor woman. He went home, but could not sleep that night, and for a fortnight continued pleading with God for mercy. Unbelief, as he expressed it, hindered him from getting peace, though all the time his mind was full of, the words, “He that believeth shall be saved.”
When she spoke of the contrast in his appearance to his former ragged state, he replied, “Oh! it’s that Blessed One who has done it all” proving the truth of that word which says, godless is profitable unto the life that now is. (1 Tim. 4:88For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. (1 Timothy 4:8).)
On departing, he put into her hand a shilling, in token of gratitude, urging upon her the solemn responsibility of speaking earnestly and plainly to any “cad” who might ever visit her hereafter.
G. T.